If I am reading this right, Swiminfo.com is reporting that Craig Stevens is indeed going to back out of the 400 and leave it up to Australia Swimming to "pick another member of the Olympic Team" to swim that race in Athens. If I am ANY other country, swimmer, the 3rd place finisher at the Trials or an organization interested in ethics, then I am raising a stink on this one!!!! Thorpe DQ'd and the Aussies are going to skirt the rule and get him in anyway. They would be relegated to the status of Ben Johnson, Rosie Ruiz, and the 60+% of MLB who are on steriods! This is FREAKIN' UNBELIEVABLE. I have no respect for any of the aforementioned and if this happens, none for Ian Thorpe and the Australian swim federation (or whatever official name they hide behind) are in that seeming, stinking pile.
Former Member
Originally posted by knelson
I don't know the exact rules Australia follows for choosing its Olympic team, but I keep hearing if one of the qualifiers steps down, they have the authority to pick his or her replacement. So apparently Australia is allowed to pick Thorpe to replace Stevens. I think at this point it's a case of what can they do, versus what should they do. I believe, ethically, what they should do is pick the third place finisher, not a non-finisher.
Actually, their own rule is that if a swimmer drops out before the games, his spot goes the next place swimmer. You would think that the plain meaning is obvious -- it goes to the third place finisher, then fourth place and so on. But they've come up with a convoluted -- and vaguely Orwellian -- interpretation of "next," so that it means a NON-finisher and that the spot can go to Thorpe and ONLY to Thorpe. Read here:
sport.independent.co.uk/.../story.jsp
Of course they're not breaking any IOC rule, but they seem to be manipulating their own rules, after the results are posted, to come up with whatever result suits them.
Originally posted by aquageek
Australia has been given the freedom to choose their Olympians. If they decide to be somewhat shady, so what? That's their call, not the IOCs. You may not like their random use of their own rules but you can't randomly enforce an IOC rule that does not exist and claim some higher moral ground.
I don't know the exact rules Australia follows for choosing its Olympic team, but I keep hearing if one of the qualifiers steps down, they have the authority to pick his or her replacement. So apparently Australia is allowed to pick Thorpe to replace Stevens. I think at this point it's a case of what can they do, versus what should they do. I believe, ethically, what they should do is pick the third place finisher, not a non-finisher.
Originally posted by lefty
I agee with the point you are making Geek. On a side note, though, the Masters is not an official PGA event and they do have some of their own rules on qualifying! (But the rules of the Golf Game itself are the same!)
I didn't put two and two together before, but now I realize lefty is Phil Mickelson. Nice job in the Masters, Phil! I never knew you swam, too :)
Originally posted by kaelonj
Human error is part of sports (the Cubs Bill Buckner letting a ground ball go pass him at first base)
You're confusing the two cursed teams in baseball here! Billy Bucks did play for the Cubs, but this incident was when he played for the Red Sox ('86 World Series).
The basketball player who called the timeout when there weren't any remaining was Chris Webber, I believe.
Actually it appears Lefty and Swimr4life are agreeing. My point is that there was no rule broken, at least according to the Australians. They also had Australina Rules Football, a sport no one really understand.
Originally posted by swimr4life
That is why we disagree. I definitely am a conservative. Go by the rules.
Well, I'm a liberal and I also say go by the rules. Finally an issue with support on both sides of the aisle!
Didn't read all of the posts here, a lot but not all.
Would I love to see the world's fastest at the Olympics? Of course. But...
The rules are there for a reason. We've all been DQ'd and have had to live with it.
Hell, what if the super Aussie gets pneumonia right before the Games, should we wait til he's better? Come on. Everybody has to play by the same rules, world's fastest or not.
